If you look north as you pass through Moriarty on Interstate 40, you'll see neat rows of gray metal markers in front of a red block wall, plus a statue of a child sleeping in her mother's lap.

The DWI Memorial of Perpetual Tears is the nation's first to traffic fatalities caused by drunken drivers, says its founder, Sonja Britton of Moriarty.

She said she began to push for the memorial after her 30-year-old son, Monty Bryan Britton, was killed by a drunken driver near Durango, Colo., in 1991.

"After a period of grieving of about two years, I became involved in various prevention programs around here," she said.

As chairwoman of the Torrance County DWI Council, Sonja Britton convinced the city of Moriarty to adopt the project, formed a nonprofit and lobbied the New Mexico Legislature for funds.

The first step was getting Mike and Ralph Anaya, local businessmen and brothers of former Gov. Toney Anaya, to donate four acres of commercial property in Moriarty, which Britton said is valued at $369,000.

The second step, completed earlier this year, was the Field of Markers with 914 metal tombstones symbolizing DWI deaths over the last five years in New Mexico. Moriarty City Councilor Larry Irvin, owner of Moriarty Pipe & Iron, had the tombstones cut from metal plates, painted light gray with a red-ribbon decal and engraved with four tear-drop shapes. The markers are framed by a red block wall behind them.

The next step, completed Tuesday, was the installation of Santa Fe artist Rosie Sandifer's sculpture, Nesting. The life-sized bronze depicts a girl draped across her mother's lap while the mother holds a book she has been reading her child. It will be officially unveiled during a Dec. 15 candlelight vigil organized by the state chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

Sandifer's work has been exhibited at the Fleisher Museum, Tucson Museum of Art, Cincinnati Museum Center and the National Museum of Wildlife Art. She is represented in Santa Fe by the Zaplin Lambert Gallery, which discounted its usual dealers' fee on Nesting by $8,000, Britton said.

So far, the state Legislature has appropriated $830,500 toward the memorial, including $17,500 for Sandifer's sculpture, $50,000 for the first year's salary for an administrator and additional funds for a new building that should get under way this spring.

The building will have places to pick up DWI information and include an office for the administrator and a volunteer. Britton, who said she is in the process of hiring an administrator, expects to return to the 2008 Legislature for additional funds for landscaping, sidewalks and other paving.

Britton said the final phase of the memorial will be to extend the red block wall so markers can be erected for each of the other 49 states, noting the number of DWI-caused traffic fatalities in each of those states, "so the whole nation will eventually be represented at that site."

Contact Tom Sharpe at 986-3080 or tsharpe@sfnewmexican.com.

If You Go

What: Candlelight vigil and unveiling of new sculpture at the Memorial of Perpetual Tears

Where: Take N.M. 41 south from Galisteo to the Interstate 40 frontage road (Abrahames Road) in Moriarty. Travel less than a mile west and take a right on Valley Irrigation Road.

When: 5-7 p.m. Dec. 15.